MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said that based on initial investigations, the anti-graft agency believed that officials from several banks received kickbacks from a financial consulting firm’s personnel in return for helping to process and approve personal loans for certain clients.

“The bank officials would identify the clients, consisting of civil servants with bad debts, and then they would be introduced to the financial consulting firm – which offered assistance with a ‘multiple loan’ scheme,” he said in a statement today.

Azam said the financial consulting firm was believed to have provided documents containing false information which were sent to several financial institutions to obtain loans. The firm was also found to have advanced money to the borrowers to settle their old debts.

“Once the loan is approved, the borrower would repay the advance (from the financial consulting firm) while the remaining loan balance would be invested in an investment scheme,” he said.

Azam said MACC froze 70 company and individual accounts involving over RM16.2 million.

He said the anti-graft agency had also seized nine vehicles of various brands, over RM300,000 in cash, 17 luxury watches estimated at RM11.1 million, and five branded handbags valued at over RM430,000.

He said the suspects, consisting of 10 men and two women aged in their 20s and 40s, were remanded for five days after obtaining approval from magistrate Irza Zulaikha Rohanuddin this morning.

Azam said the syndicate was uncovered by MACC’s anti-money laundering division in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia and local financial institutions.

The case is being investigated under Section 16 of the MACC Act 2009.